When it comes to your coaching during matches, do you coach based on the score line or based on the performance of the team? Joel Dearing, in his Wizards interview, suggests you should be focused on the team’s performance as the score will then take care of itself. This is the starting point of our discussion in this episode of the podcast.

Joel Dearing coached at NCAA Division III Springfield College for 30 years and accumulated over 700 wins. That’s good enough for a Top-10 standing in the record books. He mainly coached the women at Springfield, but also coached the men for seven seasons, and in his last had the team end the year ranked #1. Joel was five times selected AVCA Regional Coach of the Year and coached 10 All-Americans. He is a member of the board at the Volleyball Hall of Fame, a long-time part of the USA Volleyball Coaches Accreditation Program (CAP) cadre, and author of the books Volleyball Fundamentals and The Untold Story of William G. Morgan – Inventor of Volleyball.

Finding Your Coaching Niche

USA club coach Mike Lingenfelter spent a number of years in the college coaching ranks as both an assistant and head coach following his own playing career. He has really found a home coaching younger developing players at the Juniors level, though. He’s spent over 15 years at the highly respected Munciana program – the oldest volleyball club in the US. There he feels he can have the greatest impact as a trainer and player developer.

His resume includes:

Four national championships, four national runner-ups, and three third place finishes with his Juniors teams

Three Indiana state high school championships.

Indiana state high school Coach of the Year on three occasions.

Regular coaching clinic presenter

Here’s some of what Mike discusses in his interview:

– Evolving as a coach

– Having a culture

– Structuring and managing team tryouts

– Developing team culture and cohesion

– Managing the demands of a long season

– Having a player-first mentality

Play this excerpt for a taste of the sort of insights and ideas you’ll get from the full interview:

Get access to Mike’s interview now for just a $14 contribution to the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project.

Note: PayPal is used to process the payment, but a PayPal account is not required.

There have been a lot of things taught to volleyball players over the years, especially when it comes to body position in the ready phase of play. Much of it, though, has seen players put into uncomfortable positions where they struggle to move efficiently. Often this lead them to “revert” back to old habits, which usually means comfortable body posters and motions.

This episode of the podcast focuses on that, not from the perspective of how to make these things permanent, but rather in terms of the desirability of avoiding burdening players with too much complexity. The focus, instead, is on making things as simple as possible.

Anders Kristiansson, who currently coaches in Japan, is a coach who influenced other top coaches. He coached teams to 26 combined men’s and women’s championships in his native Sweden, then went on to win 15 titles in Belgium and 3 more in Greece. His teams played in four CEV Champions League Final 4s and twice reached the final. Anders also coached the Swedish national team during its strongest period of international performance. He lead the team to a silver medal at the 1989 European Championships, the nation’s best ever tournament finish.

Coaching as Teaching

American coach Joel Dearing spent 30 years coaching the women’s team at Springfield College in NCAA Division III. He also coached the Springfield men for 7 years before handing them off. All of this was while teaching. Joel is one of the most respected coaches in the Northeast of the USA, not only based on the performance of his teams, but also for his efforts in helping other coaches develop.

His resume includes:

Ranks in the top 10 in NCAA Division III victories with over 700

Lead the Springfield men’s team to a final #1 ranking in his final season

This website, or its third-party tools, use cookies to ensure the best experience on our website. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or otherwise continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies.OkRead more